SEOUL, South Korea, April 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ –Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute (KORDI) announced that it will start the full-operation and the related official data distribution service of GOCI(Geostationary Ocean Color Imager), one of the three main payloads in COMS(Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite) also known as ‘Chollian’, which was launched in June 27 last year, beginning April 20 after its 9-month-long test operation.

Considering that the development of geostationary earth observation satellite centered on meteorological satellite in the past, South Korea’s successful development of the world’s first ocean color satellite in geostationary orbit, GOCI/COMS and the start of its full-time operation is expected to strengthen the nation’s status as the leader in the development and application of geostationary ocean color satellites.

The great significance of this achievement can be found from the fact that it took only two decades for South Korea since taking its first steps toward space exploration to lead the way in the world’s ocean color observation initiatives using geostationary satellite.

The existing polar orbit ocean color sensors can only observe the surrounding ocean of the Korean peninsula once a day, but GOCI observes the surrounding ocean and the land of South Korea eight times a day in one-hour interval by continuously hovering over the Korean peninsula 24 hours a day. It is expected to contribute significantly in the nation’s effort to effectively forecast and respond to the changes in the ocean environment resulting from natural and/or artificial disasters such as earthquake, tsunami and oil spill accidents.

Additionally, GOCI can provide various kinds of ocean environment information optimized for the surrounding environment of the Korean peninsula such as the red tide, fishery environment and ocean water quality of the coastal regions since ocean researchers from South Korea have lead the way in the development since the initially stage of designing the responsibility of GOCI.

Meanwhile, Korea Ocean Satellite Center that will oversee the operation of GOCI plans to provide the standard images and observation data obtained from the satellite to the public free of charge through its main website (http://kosc.kordi.re.kr) and mobile website (http://kosc.kordi.re.kr/m/index.kosc). Additionally, the National Spatial Information Clearinghouse (http://www.nsic.go.kr) of Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs also plans to provide standard RGB color images to the public free of charge.